A century ago NJ was the leading US jurisdiction for incorporations. Then Governor Woodrow Wilson got the bright idea of trying to use the NJ corporation law as an antitrust law. The rest, as they say, is history.

More recently, the US has been the leading capital market in the world. Then somebody got the bright idea of passing Sarbanes-Oxley. I discuss the latest data on the flight of foreign firms from US markets here. It's not pretty.